Friends of Dorothy Meetings

[Jordy]

Hi all, just a new post to see if any other like minded people will be on this voyage,( part of a world voyage) we are getting on in Adelaide on the 11th Feb for 21 nights, would be great to meet up for a drink or two!!.

 

I know of one other couple getting on in Sydney, looking forward to hearing from others.

 

Ian & Russell:D

[CanCruzer]

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry for being so naieve here. Me, my wife and 13 yr old son will be cruising on the NCL Jewel. I would love to hook up with other lesbian/gay couples, but am totally clueless on how to begin.

 

I am surprised that I was able to find this forum LOL. Can anyone suggest a good starting point for us? We cruised once before for our honeymoon and spent the entire cruise to ourselves. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast! Just thought it would be fun to meet up with some new friends.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Look in the daily activities guide that lists what is happening each day. NCL typically lists a glbt or fod (friends of Dorothy) gathering, typically in a bar, where gay folks will gather. We've been on cruises with anywhere from 10 to 30 or more have shown up.

[luckegirl5]

Look in the daily activities guide that lists what is happening each day. NCL typically lists a glbt or fod (friends of Dorothy) gathering, typically in a bar, where gay folks will gather. We've been on cruises with anywhere from 10 to 30 or more have shown up.

 

Thank you!!!! The meetings are in the bars? So not kid (13yr old) friendly?

[CanCruzer]

Thank you!!!! The meetings are in the bars? So not kid (13yr old) friendly?

 

Yes. All the meetings have been in bars. On the Spirit, the meetings were in the martini bar which was in an atrium: open space at the top of stairs overlooking the floor below. I have been on the Jewel and if memory serves, it was in the Star bar, which is a separate room, but I don't think kids are prevented from going in these places. Granted, there aren't apt to be many other kids there. THAT said, there are tons of activities for kids that age, and they'd probably prefer to hang out with the kids that go to them, than hang with the parents in a bar. :eek:

 

YMMV :)

[cruisingtracey]

Hi Luckegirl, if you did mention what date you are cruising on the NCL Jewel I missed it. My wife, our best friend, and I are also cruising on the Jewel from NYC on Feb. 25. Is that the same date you are going by any chance?

[luckegirl5]

Hi Luckegirl, if you did mention what date you are cruising on the NCL Jewel I missed it. My wife, our best friend, and I are also cruising on the Jewel from NYC on Feb. 25. Is that the same date you are going by any chance?

 

Tracey,

 

I wish I were going on Feb25 because then my vacation would be sooner. We are sailing on March 17. Please do post about your trip though!!! Have fun!!!

[ChuckandScott]

Greetings fellow cruisers! Through the wonders of the Internet, I stumbled across CC by accident and easily found the "gay" section. My partner and and I are going on our 4th cruise in 3 days (the Jewel out of NYC) and looking forward to another great experience. As for the FOD meetings on our previous 3 cruises, they have varied on each one.

 

The first (a 12 day med cruise out of Barcelona) was awesome! In my research for my first cruise I found out about the FOD's on board and we went the first night a little after the posted time for the Starbar. There were already a few couples sitting around at different tables not conversing so Scott went to each of them and asked them to join us. One of the couples actually was staying in the deluxe owners suite and we ended up having several catered parties there over the next two weeks. The group ended up being around 10 couples that were doing everything together and it was such a hoot to watch the other cruise passengers' reactions when we'd go out to dinner together. We would get asked things like "are you a men's choir?" "is this a bachelor party?" and to watch people count us as we would walk by their table. Very funny! We are still friends with a several couples from that cruise.

 

The second cruise (the inaugural cruise of the Epic transatlantic) was very different. It was held at the Bliss lounge which is quite big and not as "intimate". a much larger gathering as the ship was twice as big with mostly Europeans on board. No one sat at tables, it was all about hanging out the bar. Cruise wasn't a total bust as I won $500 on a slot machine on my actual birthday!

 

Last year, we took my parents on their first cruise to Bermuda on the Gem (I guess you can tell we are being loyal to NCL) and once again a different experience. My parents knew Scott and I would be attending the FOD gatherings and even wanted to attend as they have always been very supportive of me. We went the first night to the Starbar (a much better atmosphere) with my parents and meet several couples and enjoyed good conversation getting to know one another but when we went the second evening (without the folks) no one was there so we focused the rest of the cruise on keeping the parents entertained.

 

I will post our experience after we get back next week to update how this cruise went. We look forward to possibly meeting some of you on future cruises as we have discovered this new, wonderful way to travel. I was a flight attendant for many years and always was a "fly there, do nothing" kind of guy. I love reading about everyone's travel experiences as well, so keep them coming!

[Steven_&_Daniel]

I think the phrase "Friends of Dorothy" or FOD Meetings are out of date. I'm sure many (probably younger) have no idea what that means. I think it's becoming more common to list it as a GLBT Meeting or Gathering.

 

Our last cruise had the largest group of people we've seen. It kind of turned into a family reunion with everyone meeting for happy hour every day. Sometimes we all went to dinner together in the main dining room. One night they roped off part of the buffet for our group to celebrate my partner and my 20th anniversary.

 

I think the younger crowd probably feels less comfortable, or maybe bored, hanging out with the age 30+ couples and singles who usually attend. As with all things, though, every cruise is different.

[penguinscott]

I found that on Carnival, when the meetings were at 1030 at night, no one attended them as most were at the late show.

 

On HAL, where they were at 5pm, it was very well attended by a very diverse group of gays and staights; young and old (Ruth was 100 years old!!!!)

 

I'm sailing on NCL in a month and plan on asking that they move their late night meeting to 5pm for my sailing, as my group is very GLBT friendly. And let's face it, all the cool would be there! :D

[CanCruzer]

I found that on Carnival, when the meetings were at 1030 at night, no one attended them as most were at the late show.

 

On HAL, where they were at 5pm, it was very well attended by a very diverse group of gays and staights; young and old (Ruth was 100 years old!!!!)

 

I'm sailing on NCL in a month and plan on asking that they move their late night meeting to 5pm for my sailing, as my group is very GLBT friendly. And let's face it, all the cool would be there! :D

 

Your experience echos mine exactly. We didn't meet a single person at the Carnival meeting because it was at the late seating dinner hour. I asked of they would move it and they wouldn't. I also suggested that they identify it not only as fod, but as glbt too because many of the younger folk don't know what that is. The response: "but then everyone would know who it was for"! I said we are living in the 21st century. Never again Carnival. You couldn't give me a Carnival cruise.

 

HAL was always at 5 pm cocktail hour and well attended. Thank you HAL, one of my favorite cruise lines.

 

NCL has always been very accommodating. Our most recent 7 night cruise initially had the fod meetings at 7:30. A bit awkward, but with freestyle dining, you could work around it and there were a few people. I asked them to move it, as I have on other NCL cruises, and they did, as they always have. The problem was: knowing they print the dailies up a day in advance, on embarkation I tried to reach the cruise director to check the time and ask about a move. I wasn't able to reach him until the following morning. By then the next day was already printed and the day after that was a late sail away with people not returning to the ship until 6 pm. So it wasn't until the 5th night that there was a change. I had thought about contacting NCL before our cruise to request a change, if the meetings were going to be late but didn't have time. Next time I will.

[ChuckandScott]

Wanted to post my most recent experience last week regarding the FOD get togethers. We're fairly new to cruising (4 in the past 3 years) and have only cruised with NCL. All 4 have been totally different with this last one the worst. On the 3 previous sailings, all the meetings were held in the Star Bar around 7:00. The first night of this cruise it was listed for "Bar City", which for those of you who have sailed NCL know that it really isn't a "bar" but a series of very small bars along a very busy corridor. We dutily attended and after not really "noticing" any other fellow FOD's, we asked the waiter if he knew where the gathering was specifically and he had no clue. We sat around an hour, enjoying the ambiance anyway. The next evenings posting was for the Star Bar so we decided to give it a try. We got there a bit early as Scott likes to play "host". A group of 7 (4 men, 2 women & a toddler) came in and walked right on by, as did 2 more male couples and everyone sat apart in different parts of the bar. SO different than our other cruises with one cruise in particular ending up by day 3 having about 10 couples that did pretty much everything together. I knew going into this last one it would be different as it was the beginning of spring break (we heard there was over a 1000 kids under 17 on board!). We've already booked our next 2 cruises (sticking with NCL as we are already 1 cruise away from becoming Gold members!) and we look forward to meeting other FOD's on board. Will also use a previous suggestion of asking the time be moved to around 5:00, that makes so much more sense.

[JDCookMS]

Just got back from sailing on the Carnival Conquest and had an amazing time. There were nightly FOD (called GLBT onboard) get togethers starting at either 11:00 or 11:30; however, nobody else ever showed up to any of them. This was on a Spring Break cruise with a lot of kiddies onboard. The waitress said that the week before they usually had about 20 people showing up every night.

[CanCruzer]

Just got back from sailing on the Carnival Conquest and had an amazing time. There were nightly FOD (called GLBT onboard) get togethers starting at either 11:00 or 11:30; however, nobody else ever showed up to any of them. This was on a Spring Break cruise with a lot of kiddies onboard. The waitress said that the week before they usually had about 20 people showing up every night.

 

Glad you had a good time. That's late for me! I'd still prefer cocktail hour meetings. From there folks can always plan to meet later in the evening after dinners and shows.

[JDCookMS]

Glad you had a good time. That's late for me! I'd still prefer cocktail hour meetings. From there folks can always plan to meet later in the evening after dinners and shows.

 

Yeah... it's timing was a bit of an issue for me. I'd usually show up for a one drink, check to make certain nobody else was there and then would bail to go see something else that was going on. (the late show was still going on, there was always a "close of magic with Yatish" at the same time, etc.)

[Pinklover954]

Anyway to find out if there will be a FOD meet and greet on 4/14/12 Carnival Liberty?

[KenCT]

Very interesting article as it relates to the thread here.

[jamessemaj]

Very interesting article as it relates to the thread here.

 

That is certainly true, and I'm happy for it. I envy the younger gays who have no idea of what somewhere over the rainbow means, and have no idea of what it was like to be gay during the 50's, 60's (even with Stonewall), and onward, what the fear was like. I am happy for them and wish I were born in a more enlightened time.

[pauleydm]

"I'm the kinda "gay" that believes if we want equality, we need to stop having "Gay Exclusive" things, as that's theopposite of equality!"

 

I 100 percent agree!!!

[ONT-CA]

We no longer need "Friends Of Dorothy" as an identity code any more. What we do need is to remember that the code "Friends Of Dorothy" was one of the stepping-stones that brought about the changes to the freedom we now enjoy. Forget the relationships it may or may not have had with movie stars or socialites, remember and use it as a tribute to the struggle for equality.

[AttilaTheFun]

Wow, let's not start another heated argument over whether FOD or LGBT gatherings are needed any longer. Many people enjoy the chance to meet other LGBT folks, but if that isn't your cup of tea, no need to attend.

 

There was a flight attendant & pilot gathering on our last Princess cruise - it was just a way of people with a common background meeting one another. I think it's silly to say that somehow FOD/LGBT gatherings are setting back gay rights or going against the notion of equality. Unfortunately, it's usually my generation that has grown up in a more tolerant environment that has these views, probably because we didn't have to go through things like Stonewall to fight for rights. It's sad that younger generations sometimes forget those things.

[KenCT]

Wow, let's not start another heated argument over whether FOD or LGBT gatherings are needed any longer.

Did you read the article. It really wasn't about that.

[AttilaTheFun]

Did you read the article. It really wasn't about that.

 

I know that, but a recent comment right after your posting of that article WAS.

[Pinklover954]

:cool:I don't think there is nothing wrong with wanting to meet people who have the same background as you. Its a way of meeting someone like yourself. We have to realize that even though Stonewall happened years ago, that we still are hated by many.

It's not as if its a gay coalition or anything. lol. Its just a way to meet other LGBT people, or even straight people who are cool with LGBT people for that matter.

[Bubski]

We have only been on one cruise but are cruising again this fall and I definately will attend an FOD if there is one - we had a good time on our first cruise; it was enjoyable meeting other couples.